Feature image of Wyoming mountain lions courtesy of National Parks Service

When Wyoming’s House Bill 286 was introduced on January 26th, 2025, by Representatives Mike Schmid and Jeremy Haroldson, many of us working in mountain lion advocacy had immediate, painful flashbacks to Utah’s House Bill 469, which was signed into law in 2023. Both bills kicked the doors wide open for unlimited hunting and trapping of mountain lions in their respective states. Utah’s HB 469 was eventually signed into law, and advocates in that state and beyond are still working to get it overturned. The Mountain Lion Foundation and Western Wildlife Conservancy have an active lawsuit underway, and Utah Mountain Lion Conservation has used stunning footage of mountain lions to tell the story of the law’s lethal consequences on the ground in Utah.

Unlike Utah’s HB 469, however, which was essentially “slipped through” without public input, Wyoming’s HB 286 received a full public hearing before the state’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee on February 4th. Opposition to the bill was strong, swift, and loud. The Jackson-based Cougar Fund took the lead among wildlife advocates, coordinated by Penny Maldonado and Korinna Domingo, with the Mountain Lion Foundation and other organizations joining in supporting roles. Cougar Fund board members Cara Blessley Lowe and Corey Rutledge testified at the hearing.

Motivated by lessons learned in Utah, where hunting and trapping mountain lions has now become an unregulated free-for-all, Wyoming’s hunting community mobilized in opposition to HB 286 as well. Lee Livingston of the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association spoke in opposition, as did Luke Worthington of the Wyoming Houndsman Association. It’s not often that wildlife advocates and sportsmen’s groups are on the same side of an issue, but this was one of those times, and the mountain lions of Wyoming benefitted enormously: The bill never made it out of committee, and the victory was celebrated across the political spectrum.

“Wyoming and other western states are beautiful and full of hardworking people who love the wildness,” says Penny Maldonado, Executive Director of the Cougar Fund. “Often that love is expressed in ways that are very hard to understand. The lens of history focuses heavily on the utilitarian values of wildlife: prey to eat and predators to blame, because the predators seem to compete for the prey. Sadly, there is resistance to evidence that supports how mountain lions contribute to the intricacies of the natural world. Lions are not the enemy, but the human condition of needing something to ‘blame’ is stronger than the quest for data-derived knowledge. HB 286 was a symbol of that, and we thank the lawmakers for recognizing it.”